Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia (HAP), also known as nosocomial pneumonia, is a common cause of death among patients suffering from nosocomial infections and is the primary cause of death in intensive care units. A cause of HAP is thought to be aspiration of microscopic drops and/or macroscopic amounts of nose and throat secretions. Accordingly, HAP may ultimately be caused by diminished lung volumes due to decreased clearance of secretions.
Medical literature misses an important point which may be responsible for the failure to address this problem. In particular, the issue is treated as though it were an unavoidable hazard of breathing while in a hospital. However, mucous is not produced in or near the lungs. Instead, mucous is produced in the sinus cavities of the head of a patient. The mucous must thereafter travel down the back of the sinuses into the throat and into proximity with the lungs before those microscopic drops can be aspirated into the lungs as the patient draws breath. This aspiration happens because patients in hospitals invariably lie supine (i.e., on their backs) in their beds. In that position, gravity is constantly at work to bring nasal secretions down the back of the throat and into the lungs.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.